It is well known that latex can be applied to fibrous substrates, such as paper to increase the strength of the treated substrate. For tape and abrasive paper applications, delamination resistance (internal bond strength) and stretch are as important as tensile strength. Wet tensile strength is also essential for many applications. Conventionally, increasing the flexibility of the latex system, such as adding plasticizers, is used to modify properties. However, this often reduces the tensile strength and sacrifices delamination resistance. A more rigid, stronger latex polymer system may be produced by the addition of thermoset resins. However, this results in a sacrifice of the stretch of the resulting saturated paper. A conventional means to increase the wet strength is to use a crosslinking agent, such as N-methyloacrylamide. However, this results in the subsequent release of formaldehyde.